1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to purchasing systems via a public computer network system (Internet or World-Wide-Web). While the products sold on the Internet are often real and tangible, the market place exists in a virtual realm. To conduct the business of selling in the virtual realm of the Internet, a virtual transaction had to take place; or so it has been thought. This Invention facilitates non-virtual transactions that take place at a retail point of sale for a means of virtual merchandising.
2. Related Prior Art
Retail industries can exist anywhere. The historical version of retail was the actual retail point of sale. A retailer established a store where customers could visit, look at merchandise and make purchases. The customer had to visit the store in order to purchase the products. Other forms of retailing have existed like local street vendors, door-to-door salesmen, shop-by-telephone, mail order catalogs, infomercial shop-by telephone, and most recently, the Internet.
One of the differences between retail point of sale and other methods of sale is the time variable involved with merchandising transactions. One should not make the mistake of assuming that time is the essential element that distinguishes between direct purchases and those on account. The basic formula for establishing a credit account is where the purchase price (P) of a product can be paid at a later time (T), an interest rate (R) can be assessed, and the amount paid:(A)=P(1+R)T.
A person may gain extra time to pay for a purchase by using credit, but it is the agreement between parties that one will extend credit to the other that creates a credit account. Time has no meaning in the direct purchase formula (A)=P. For that matter, there is always some lag between the time payment is tendered and possession takes place even if for just split seconds. Sometimes a lag between payment and possession requires a voucher so that the purchaser has some proof that payment has been made. The voucher is usually just a simple sales receipt. Other times it can be a ticket such as for attending a theater or other engagement. The voucher in this case does not represent an account or value of money. The voucher merely represents that the transaction has been completed and the merchandise, whether physical merchandise or simply entertainment, has been authorized.
Retail points of sale transactions involve at least one in-person contact with the buyer. On the Internet, it has always been assumed that this transaction must be conducted virtually on the Internet; after all, the Internet is a virtual realm. With the huge rise in popularity of the Internet, there are rising concerns from the public about who should and who should not be able to access certain Internet content such as but not limited to: materials with copyrights such as music, content that is adult in nature, or other restricted access material.
Regulatory authorities and web masters have made attempts to control access through the selling of access rights over the Internet itself. These services are often called subscription based I.D. or age verification services. User names and passwords or other means of secure access have been delivered to consumers after they entered credit card information. This has become an accepted means of control, particularly with Adult Verification systems.
Public Key infrastructure (PKI) is one method that has evolved into a secure and anonymous means of handling web transactions through the uses of encryption, trusted vendors, and trusted banking institutions. PKI methods of Web transactions may involve digital signature and money transactions over the Internet. They typically require a customer, a bank, a merchant, a public archive such as an Internet web site, Certificate Authorization servers, and encryption and decryption of the data.
Most secure web transactions require cookies and Web delivered applets (such as JAVA). A cookie is information that a Web site puts on an end-users hard disk so that it can use the information at a later time.
Using the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), each request for a Web page is often independent of all other requests. For this reason, the Web page servers typically have no memory of what pages it has sent to a user previously or anything about previous visits. A cookie is a mechanism that allows the server to store its own information about a user on the user's own computer. For example, the Internet Explorer browser stores cookies in a Windows subdirectory. Netscape stores cookies as a single text file.
As more and more people in world populations use computers, there becomes an increased need for security to control what data can be accessed, where and when people can access it, and which people are allowed any access to secure data. Copyrighted materials are of a particular area of interest as the media material objects such as records, tapes, and disks are now being replaced by digital media content. There have been numerous attempts at ways to prevent illegal copies. There have been primarily two different categories in which these content protection systems fall: 1) file server protection that allows authorized access while at the same time protecting illegal access by hackers attempting to steal the copyrighted materials without paying for them; and 2) preventing end-users from illegally sharing unauthorized copies with others.
Both of these types of systems have focused primarily on the file server side in controlling who, when, where, and what can download the media. More recent efforts have looked into using multiple Digital Rights Management “DRM” systems through a “Keychest” or “Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem” which does not focus on the one file server, but considers a digital rights storage locker solution as a third party digital rights clearing house. Yet, third party digital rights storage locker systems have also remained true to the above typology, delivering multiple instance or types of security from multiple file servers through one centralized security service.